Torres Elementary School groundbreaking

Dozens of students wearing tiny yellow construction hats on Dec. 14, 2018 helped mark the start of construction of Dr. Joseph E. Torres Elementary School, EPISD Bond 2016’s first consolidation project. District officials and representatives from Bradley and Fannin elementary schools – the two campuses that will merge to form the new Torres Elementary – celebrated the groundbreaking of the school in front of family and friends of the school’s namesake. The new school, which will be built on the Bradley site and is slated to open with its combined student population for the 2020-21 academic year, is named after the late Joseph Torres – a World War II veteran, dentist and philanthropist with a long list of accomplishments in El Paso. Friday’s ceremony celebrated the start of construction at the school, and the beginning of the school consolidations that are part of the Rightsizing for the Future campaign aimed at matching the number of schools the District operates with the number of students enrolled in EPISD. The $19.2-million construction project will build 50,000 square feet of modern, 21st-century instructional facilities that include new classrooms, a library, a multipurpose room and administrative offices. The funding also will pay for major renovation to existing facilities at the Bradley site. (Leonel Monroy, Jr./El Paso ISD)